Why Every Actor Is Called the New Brando and Why Tom Hardy Actually Might Be

In the propulsive, stripped-down tour de force Locke,Tom Hardy acts alone on-screen for the full 85 minutes—while driving, no less, and speaking to family and colleagues on the phone in a gentle Welsh lilt. While this might sound unbearably dull, it’s riveting thanks to the charismatic Hardy, one of the few actors anywhere worth watching by himself in a car. He plays Ian Locke with such wit, passion, and inventiveness that I found myself thinking, “Could Tom Hardy be the new Marlon Brando?”

Of course, I realized that this was a cliché. If you’re under the age of 50, you’ve spent your whole life hearing actors described as “The New Brando.” From the moment his Stanley Kowalski hit the screen in A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, Marlon Brando became a cultural archetype, an actor known for his blend of beauty, animal magnetism, danger, vulnerability, emotional commitment, and sly playfulness. He was such a touchstone that critics and filmgoers wanted to discover another Brando, while young actors wanted one. And so, over the past half-century, we’ve seen a parade of talented guys blessed with—or maybe cursed by—the comparison.

Here’s a brief look at various contenders through the years, each plugged into the Brando-Meter, a rigorous scientific tool that precisely measures how close each actor comes to achieving Brando’s defining qualities and rates it on a 5-point scale:

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Like Brando: He was astonishingly beautiful, knew how to be sexy, and worked hard to achieve raw emotion.

Unlike Brando: Never a deep actor, he always felt a little flimsy: In what might’ve been his greatest role, the pool-playing Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler, he’s merely good and lets himself be out-acted by both Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott. He was terrific at being a conventional movie star.

The Five to See:Hud, The Hustler, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Slap Shot, The Verdict.

Brando-Meter Score: 19 (B=5, A=2, S=5, V=3, O=2, P=2)

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Like Brando: The young De Niro—especially in Scorsese’s Mean Streets—was a wizard who dove deep into dangerously reckless emotion, shimmering with vibrant, unpredictable life. The older De Niro nearly always seems to be working for a paycheck —his last groundbreaking performances were more than 20 years ago.

Unlike Brando: Coming across heavy when he should be light, he often seems charmlessly dour, even when he wants to be humorous.

The Five to See:Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, New York, New York, The Godfather: Part 2

Brando-Meter Score: 23 (B=4, A=5, S=3, V=3, O-5, P=3).

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Like Brando: At his best, he bristles with a ferocious intensity that can either explode or become white hot (like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, where he’s not merely believable as Brando’s son, he outshines the master in one of film history’s great performances).

The Five to See:The Godfather (Parts I and II), Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Dick Tracy, Donnie Brasco

Brando-Meter Score: 21 (B=4, A=4, S=3, V=3, O=4, P=3)

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Like Brando: Early on, he was a gorgeously virile young man possessed of a humorous charm that leavened the seriousness—he’s fabulous in Rumble Fish. Later, he allowed himself to become a physical wreck, as if almost deliberately desecrating his own beauty and showing his contempt for the industry.

Unlike Brando: He never found a truly major role and then nailed it. Where Brando is brilliant in the epochal Last Tango in Paris, Rourke made Nine 1/2 Weeks, a sex drama so laughable it sent his career on a downward spiral.

The Five to See:Diner, Rumble Fish, Body Heat, The Rainmaker, The Wrestler.

Brando-Meter Score:15 (B=4, A=2, S=3, V=2, O=2, P=2)

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Like Brando: Himself an icon to younger actors, he boasts a great, wounded intensity and a capacity for burrowing deep into characters.

Unlike Brando: Smart but painfully earnest, he mistrusts pleasure—he seems unaware that he was better and more enjoyable in Fast Times at Ridgemont High than in Mystic River.

The Five to See: Fast Times at Ridgement High, At Close Range, The Falcon and the Snowman, Milk, This Must Be the Place (because he’s so delightfully crazy in it).

Brando-Meter Score: 23 (B=3, A=4, S=3, V=5, O=5, P=3).

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Like Brando: He’s a strange mixture of forceful animality (he’s even hairy!), startling unpredictability, and a depressing knack for throwing his talent away on rubbish.

Unlike Brando: His intensity tends to be more weirdly manic than emotionally resonant.

The Five to See: Moonstruck, Vampire’s Kiss, Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation., The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

Brando-Meter Score:23 (B=2, A=4, S=3, V=4, O=5, P=5)

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Like Brando: Embedding himself in his roles like a chameleon who practices the Method, he can be scary and sexy and funny—heck, even Sean Penn thinks he’s the greatest actor around.

Unlike Brando: While the Grand Marlon had Dionysian appetites—for food, for sex, for politics—that shone through his characters, Day-Lewis is something of a monkish cipher, a zen actor whose essential self remains hidden. On the upside, he’s never frittered away his vast talent in junk, which in a way makes him Brando’s superior.

The Five to See:My Left Foot, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood.

Brando-Meter Score:26 (B=4, A=4, S=4, V=4, O=5, P=5).

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Like Brando: Even as a gorgeous young man who worshipped Brando—he acted with him and directed him—he adored the unconventional. He loses himself in his roles, giving nearly all of his characters a uniquely inventive spin.

The Five to See:Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Dead Man, Donnie Brasco, (the first) Pirates of the Caribbean.

Brando-Meter Score:23 (B=5, A=2, S=3, V=3, O=5, P=5)

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Like Brando: Whether playing a cop, an informant, or a gladiator, he gives his scenes a physical and emotional force that can make those around him seem like balsa wood. It’s not for nothing that when I asked Michael Mann about Crowe, he replied, "This guy is the young Marlon Brando."

Unlike Brando: Known for his, um, grumpiness issues, he has very little sex vibe and all the humor of a tree stump.

The Five to See:Romper Stomper, L.A. Confidential, The Insider, Proof of Life, A Beautiful Mind.

BBrando-Meter Score:20 (B=3, A=5, S=3, V=4, O=4, P=1)

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Like Brando: Equally good playing heavy or light, he immerses himself in characters from a mentally challenged young man to a Wall Street crook.

Unlike Brando: He struggled for years with seeming boyish not manly—though he’s finally arrived—and though he can be funny, his dispassionate ambition can be tiresome.